Top seed Serena Williams' coach has dismissed her decade-long 15-0 winning streak against Maria Sharapova as irrelevant ahead of the arch-rivals' blockbuster Australian Open final today

Melbourne: Top seed Serena Williams' coach has dismissed her decade-long 15-0 winning streak against Maria Sharapova as irrelevant ahead of the arch-rivals' blockbuster Australian Open final today.

Final battle: Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova

Second seeded Sharapova faces questions over her staggering inability to notch a win over Williams since 2004,

The Russian's overall losing record against Williams is 16-2, including a crushing straight sets win in the 2007 Australian final, and her last 15 meetings with the 18-time Grand Slam champion have ended in defeat.

But Williams' coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, said such statistics mean nothing when the adversaries face each other in the Rod Laver Arena. "Every sequence has to end, just ask Nadal," he told AFP, referring to Czech Tomas Berdych's quarter-final win over Rafael Nadal.

"Sharapova is changing all the time and works hard. She develops her game, she evolves. This is the strength of a champion."